Elevar

When it comes to eCommerce, the importance of dependable data cannot be overstated. Don't trust your data? Need it to deliver deeper insights? Want to scale marketing spend confidently, in a data-driven, dependable manner?

Elevar's core data layer tool helps add events to your Google Tag Manager for improved tracking of key events on your site, via your Facebook, Google Ads, Tik Tok ads and more.

Moving to "server-side" tracking (their server or your own, depending on preference) represents a promising solution to the issues that the effective end of third party cookies represents to online retailers, helping you to effectively track users through to sales with expanded use of 1st party cookies.

Elevar goes through a three step process to help you attribute less revenue to "direct/none" and more to your channels. Firstly, Shopify has their own conversion tracking that can be tied back to each event and order to better track the user. Next, Elevar checks parameters (for example, UTM parameters) to see if they reveal source information. Finally, they check the cookie data (which, of course, has become less reliable with the impending "cookiepocolypse").

If you're looking to get real clarity on what's driving your sales, and need to resolve issues around conversion tracking once and for all, Elevar could represent the solution to all of your problems. A majority of their customers, for the first time ever, have 100% conversion tracking accuracy for the majority of their lifetime. They guarantee 95% conversion tracking accuracy, and often are hitting a straight 100%

On their free plan, you'll have access to a Chrome plugin that you can use to add tracking components to various aspects of your website (for example, switching between different alt images, sizes etc.)

With the Elevar Basic Plan merchants get the Elevar data layer to ensure data collection and delivery is done in a standardized way between the site and all marketing channels.

With the Advanced and Pro Plans, clients have the data layer, event builder, and are able to implement server-side tracking using Elevar's fully managed server, along with error monitoring and channel accuracy reporting.

When it comes to data attribution, eCommerce merchants typically have a few different problems that need to be solved - one of which is "obtaining clean data in the first instance." Elevar focuses on resolving this important part of the equation. They help to ensure that every action and data point is collected and organized for analysis. Data is available in Google Analytics for merchants to use in other tools for modeling, visualizing data or storing in data warehousing - all with increased confidence.

Elevar helps you properly attribute and understand your various sources of conversion. Organic, affiliate and referral tend to go down, while paid ads go up, which is great for proving that your affiliates shouldn't get credit for certain sales, for example. Merchants can also reduce cannibalization by sites like Honey, shareasale or other affiliates who are getting credit for sales that are wrongly attributed to them.

Another advantages that comes with using Elevar's server-side tracking includes increased site speed. As more marketing channels develop their own Marketing APIs, merchants will be able to move more tracking offline. This means less global javascript loading in the browser and faster site speed for shoppers.

Often the person making the investment in Elevar will be a marketer or media buyer, but could ostensibly be any business owner trying to get more accurate data that they feel they can trust. Elevar is also a good tool for media buying agencies who need better accuracy from their clients' data, in order to be confident that they're providing top quality results to their supported clients.

You start by setting up your data layer, then go to the Elevar data layer tab and select the events you want to track. You need to uninstall Google Tag Manager if you've already installed it, remove the hard coded GTM script, and replace it with the Elevar snippets that pull in GTM.

Elevar automatically creates the events and all the variables you may need for each channel. Installing new channels, such as Facebook, Tik Tok, Recharge, Klaviyo and more only takes a few minutes.

As a platform, Elevar's goal is to get you fully set up and, so long as everything is going well, you will not have to log in to the tool again. Of course, things change, go wrong, you have new integrations etc, so you may hop back in occasionally to update their platform, but typically, you'll be able to "set it and forget it."

Elevar is crucial for merchants running medium to heavy volume in paid ads, especially across multiple channels. If you're investing anything close to $10k/month or more in ad spend, you need the additional insight that Elevar offers.

A great fit for customers using headless commerce solutions, Elevar also represents an appealing proposition for Plus merchants, who benefit slightly more than regular Shopify merchants because (for now) they can modify the checkout page with better tracking. However, this is not a huge deal and if the rumors are true and Shopify intends to open up their checkout page in 2022, then this will soon work for all merchants.